/Don't you love it when you finish a first draft, sit back and feel excited about what you wrote? How often does that happen? How frequently do we allow ourselves that feeling?
I wrote a poem a couple years ago that I subbed to my critique group. Several told me it said something important and I needed to submit it. So, I did submit the poem to several publications. Never got so much as a flicker of interest. After being rejected at each place I'd subbed to, I did exactly what I've told you readers to do when a piece doesn't work or is not accepted. I put it in a file and thought that someday, maybe I'd find the right place for this particular poem.
Yesterday, I received an email with a call for submissions for poems about the exact subject my poem languishing in a file addresses. As I read the information, I marveled that the call went out on Monday and deadline was Friday of the same week. Maybe 'starteld' is a better word. I checked and the publication is legitimate. So, later today, I am going to pull the poem from the dusty file and do a final edit and tweak it a bit, then submit. If I had tried to start a poem from scratch after reading the call for submissions yesterday, it would be a hurried project and I might rue the day I subbed it.
Poetry is no different than prose. We edit and revise numerous times until it meets our satisfaction.
The poem is one of those that I did feel good about when I wrote it. I felt good when it received accolades from my fellow critiquers. I felt good about it when I filed it for future use. The future is now and I hope that I will still feel good about what I wrote when I read it later today.
I'd love to see a survey on the percentage of things written make the writers feel good. If you sorted all that you have written over the years into the ones that excited you and the ones that made you feel so-so and then the ones that made you grimace because you know you can writer better--if you did that, how many would land in that stack that made you excited? My guess is that it might be the smallest pile of the three. Unless you are an exceptional writer and everything you write excites you. If that's you, raise your hand.
I know one thing--I definitely remember the ones that made me feel excited, made me feel good, made me feel satisfied.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI found it especially apropos as I just went through 255 old newspaper columns I had written in preparation for restarting my column in June. I was sure I would do a lot of cringing. But actually, I only found a handful that made me wince. Some were better, some were worse, but the best part was finding good writing that I had forgotten about entirely.
Reading five years’ worth of columns consecutively, it pleased me to see – if not a steady improvement in writing, certainly an increased confidence. Thank you for the reminder to celebrate our successes! The work can be long and tiring; we need to find every reason possible to celebrate along the way.
Carrie
What a great comment. Thank you for sharing your recent experience of looking at old columns. And wasn't it wonderful to find so many you felt were 'good' ones.
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